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All our qualities, whether good or bad, are unstable and ambiguous, and almost all are at the mery of chance.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Age: 66 †
Born: 1613
Born: September 15
Died: 1680
Died: March 17
Memoirist
Military Personnel
Writer
Paris
France
François VI
Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Prince de Marcillac
François
Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Good
Ambiguous
Unstable
Qualities
Risk
Almost
Quality
Chance
Whether

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When the heart is still disturbed by the relics of a passion it is proner to take up a new one than when wholly cured.
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Virtue would not make such advances if there were not a little vanity to keep it company.
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A man of understanding finds less difficulty in submitting to a wrong-headed fellow, than in attempting to set him right.
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There are some bad qualities which make great talents.
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The truest mark of being born with great qualities is to be born without envy.
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Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.
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We should manage our fortune as we do our health - enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity
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Great men should not have great faults.
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We make promises to the extent that we hope-and keep them to the extent that we fear.
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A man often believes himself leader when he is led as his mind endeavors to reach one goal, his heart insensibly drags him towards another.
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Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.
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Moderation is a fear of falling into that envy and contempt which those who grow giddy with their good fortune quite justly draw upon themselves. It is a vain boasting of the greatness of our mind.
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The grace of novelty and the length of habit, though so very opposite to one another, yet agree in this, that they both alike keepus from discovering the faults of our friends.
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Few things are impossible in themselves: application to make them succeed fails us more often than the means.
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If we took as much pains to be what we ought, as we do to deceive others by disguising what we are we might appear as we are, without being at the trouble of any disguise.
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Women can more easily conquer their passion than their coquetterie.
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In friendship, as in love, we are often more happy from the things we are ignorant of than from those we are acquainted with.
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The cunningest dissimulation is when a man pretends to be caught in the traps others set for him and a man is never so easily over-reached as when he is contriving to over-reach others.
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Indolence, languid as it is, often masters both passions and virtues.
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One of the greatest and also the commonest of faults is for men to believe that, because they never hear their shortcomings spoken of, or read about them in cold print, others can have no knowledge of them. GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG, The Reflections of Lichtenberg We are often more agreeable through our faults than our good qualities.
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